Posted on 01/20/2010 7:24:26 AM PST by Texas Fossil
An Austin police effort to curtail the illegal sales of firearms at a weekend gun show sparked an angry response from the event's organizer and raised concerns about whether the department overstepped its authority.
Several police recommendations about the operation of the show were intended to curtail crime there and should not have been viewed as requirements, authorities said Tuesday.
But the show organizer said he thought that law enforcement officials were instructing him to adopt rules that violated state and federal law, including a requirement that only licensed gun dealers be allowed to sell firearms. He said he begrudgingly enforced the recommendations.
The dispute, which began late last week, has since sparked a controversy that is playing out on Web sites and radio talk shows.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Thanks for your insight of situation. Some I knew, but parts did not.
No problem, the men and women of the Austin PD are good people, I know several of them personally. The problem is that Acevado is trying so hard to ‘reform’ the ‘image’ of the department that he’s hamstringing them. Several officers that I’ve talked to are almost afraid to do their job because they don’t know if they’ll be suspended or be put on review for their actions.
Political Correctness is insanity.
It kills organizations and nations.
Insanity imported from CA to TX. Should be quarantined at the Border.
But parking lot gun sales where the seller is not a FFL aren't illegal. Where do they get off telling him he has to prevent legal transactions?
Shoot, in Phoenix there’s private sellers with tables! And strolling around inside, and in the parking lot.
Actually, that's a good thing. If their "enforcement" is limited to harassing people transacting legal business, the fact that you know in advance they won't tase or shoot you lessens the degree of infringement. Just say no. ;-)
Sounds like the GI in Afghanistan who’s in legal soup for completing a mission WITHIN THE SPECIFIED PARAMETERS!
Their point was that illegal sales to illegal aliens were being made in the parking lot.
If so, why aren’t they working the parking lot incognito. They’d catch illegal aliens and illegal gun sales. A twofer.
I suspect that they were just being assholes because BATF asked them to, and because of politics.
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